So the poor man went to the king and told him what his daughter had said.
The king, seeing that the girl was wiser than himself, ordered that she should be brought before him. When she bent before the king, he said, ‘Guess, maiden! what can be heard at the greatest distance?’
The girl answered, ‘Your majesty, the thunder and the lie can be heard at the greatest distance.’
Then the king grasped his beard, and, turning to his courtiers, put to them the question, ‘Guess what my beard is worth?’ Some of them said so much, others again so much; but the girl observed to the king that none of the courtiers had guessed right, and said, ‘The king’s beard is worth as much as three summer rains.’ The king, greatly astonished, said, ‘It is so; the girl has guessed rightly!’ Then he asked her if she were willing to be his wife; and added that, if she were willing, he would marry her.
The girl bent low and said, ‘Let it be as your majesty commands! But I pray you write with your hand on a scrap of paper this promise, that if you should ever be displeased with me, and should send me away from you, I shall be allowed to take with me from the palace any one thing which I like best.’
The king consented, and gave the promise.
After they had lived happily together for some time, one day the king was angry, and said to his wife, ‘I will not have you any longer for my wife, and I bid you leave the palace!’
The queen answered, ‘I will obey your majesty, but permit me to pass one night more in the palace. To-morrow I will go.’
This, the king could not well refuse.
That evening, at supper, the queen mixed something with the wine, and offered it to the king to drink, saying, ‘Be of good cheer, O king! To-morrow we shall separate and, believe me, I shall be happier than I was when I first met you.’